The Vulture of Gun Gale Online
by Panzer4life
Summary: There's a player in GGO that is hated by all but a few; the Vulture, a PK'er who loots the dead and is a ghost. How will this solo PK-player react when the announcement of a new team-based tournament, and how will he affect GGO. Rate M for violence, language and possible lemons (far in the future).
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own 'SAO' or any of its related titles, nor do I own the 'Killzone' franchise. SAO and Killzone are owned by their respective owner, and this story is purely for entertainment purposes. This is also a SIOC story, so don't like don't read. Anyway, please enjoy.**

* * *

 _Chapter 1: The Vulture_

* * *

"Hehe, looks like the forum was right," muttered a bald man wearing a tan shirt and holding an MP-5K sub machine gun. He turned to his friends, 4 guys wearing desert apparel and holding varying assault rifles and battle rifles. "This place is rich with high grade materials, so let's gather as much as possible."

"Yes boss!" the men shouted. They began fanning out, pulling out shovels and picks to begin mining the canyon area of its rare resources. As he watched the others begin the tedious task, the bald man smirked as he began to consider what these resources would mean for his team.

Gun Gale Online was a first person massive multiplayer online role playing game, where you had various missions you could complete to gather in game currency, which would enable you to get better gear and equipment. But one of things about the game was you had to pay a monthly account fee of 3000 yen, lest you lose your account. You could pay with real money, or you could gather enough in-game currency to pay for the renewal fee.

This lead to an interesting dilemma; do you farm a bunch of easy and relatively safe PVE missions that wouldn't payout so much, or do you take the harder and more dangerous PvP missions that payout much more, but could lead to big losses, as your equipment and gear could be nicked off your body and be sold off. There was however another way to make bank, and that was farming rare resources. Not many did this as it was boring, didn't help level up your main stats other than strength, and relied on the stat barely anyone bothered with, luck, but if you could find, gather, and sell your rare resources to a reliable vendor, you could roll in cash.

The main problem came with the fact that rare resources were just that; rare as fuck. Thus hearing that there was an area rich in rare resources was like hearing that there was a new gold vein, ripe for the taking.

Thus the man had gathered his friends and set out to find this place, rich in some metal that sold for 300,000 credits per 1 kg, the equivalent of a monthly fee. And there was easily enough to give his team of 5 a year without having to pay out of their pocket. But it was strange, why wouldn't this place have been picked dry by now? Unless…

The man looked around quickly, scanning canyon walls for anything out of the usual. If it was as he suspected, he had led his team into a trap, one set up by a damn dirty PK'er, or Player Killer. It wasn't unheard of, for someone to leave a rumor on a forum, waiting for some gullible fool to kill and loot his corpse. But why lead them somewhere that legitimately had the rumored resources? The bald man froze as he saw what could be passed off for a mirage on the top of a butte. It was unlikely, but it could be a player hiding under an optical camouflage cloak; it bends the light away from the user, thus concealing their location, but left behind a mirage-like effect in its place.

The bald man switched from his MP-5K to a M40A3 sniper rifle, and raised it at the mirage. Placing his finger on the trigger, the in-game gunline appeared, with the aiming circle focusing around the mirage. The bald man was about to pull the trigger when he felt a round pass through him from behind, knocking him to the ground and killing him instantly, as the round had passed through the man's heart.

The sound of the report of a sniper caused the four men to begin scanning the canyon wall and firing randomly.

"Damn you, we'll avenge our boss!" shouted a black-haired man with an M16A4, firing randomly at any place a sniper could be hiding, which were numerous. The man was about to call out to one of his friends when he saw a round object falling towards him. His eye's widened.

"GRENADE!" the man shouted, quickly running away from the grenade, narrowing avoiding his explosion when he dived under a wrecked jeep. He saw two of his friends were huddling behind the jeep.

"Jesus guys, do you have a clue about where the sniper is?" the man asked. One of the men, a guy with a mohawk, shook his head.

"No, we've seen nothing, but whereever he is he can't be far, not if he threw that grenade," the mohawk guy. The man sighed; this wasn't good, a unseen sniper was the worse thing imaginable, as he could dicate the flow of the engagement.

~ _BEEP_ ~

The man paused; what the hell had just beeped? Tilting his head, the man looked up, and paled when he saw a blinking green light that was embedded in a block of C4. He didn't get another word out when an explosion ripped the jeep apart, taking out the three men that had thought themselves safe near the jeep.

The final man, a skinny guy wearing a bandana and carrying a G3 battle rifle was running as fast as he could down the canyon. If he could get out of that fucking labyrinth of possible sniper nests, he could reach the team's ATV and get the hell out of there alive. He turned left and saw the ATV was in sight.

The man was smiling; he was so close! All he needed to do was-

 **BANG!**

A bullet punched straight through the man's left knee cap, sending the man tumbling down.

"Jesus fuck!" the man shouted; while not as painful as it would be in real-life, in GGO pain was made so players would know when they got hit and could take cover; without it, a player could remain standing up and getting hit without realizing it. It was akin to getting hit with a hammer; painful, but unlikely to do any real harm.

The man had let go of his battlerifle and was inching to crawl towards it, but a sudden weight in the form of a boot smashed into his arm.

" **Not so fast** ," a voice said, causing the man to look up at his adversary. Instead of a face, he was greated with a gas mask that had 3 red lenses arranged in a triangle formation, covered by a cloak that seem to fade out of sight whenever the man remained still, and in his hand was a semi-automatic pistol he didn't recognize; it had a cylindrical magazine in front of the trigger and had a grip similar to a HK USP.

"What do you want PK'er?" the man growled. The masked individual lowered the pistol towards the man's head.

" **I want your gear; it would sell well after I make some…modification** ," the masked man stated. " **Now die."**

 **Bang!**

* * *

Looking down at the man I had executed, I sighed.

"God, I'll be busy looting their bodies and then modifying their guns to be worthy of my buyers," I muttered to myself. "All so I can acquire enough funds to afford that three-level magnification scope for my rifle. It had better perform as I hope."

Raising the menu, I began looting the corpse in front of me for any valuables, noting that the guy had managed to get some of the rare steel that was located in the area. It would sell for a pretty penny, but it wasn't what I was after; no, the primary weapons of these idiots were what I was after.

You see, it's one thing to mine resources, it another to farm missions for rare-level equipment, but if you invested as many skill points into weapon creation as I have, you can turn Tier 1 weapons like G3 battle rifles and M16 assault rifles into high-class Tier 4 weapons, like for instance turning the G3 into a high-precision PSG-1. It does take resources, some credits, and the base weapon, but in the end, you make a decent profit, even if you sold the end product to a NPC vendor.

But for someone like me, who also ran a small shop in one of the major safe zones, this meant I could sell the weapon for practically it entire value, at least 95% of the price of what the vendor would sell it for. This meant that even taking out 5 players with crappy gear I could afford high-end equipment and attachments for my own kit without hurting too much. As I continued into the canyon to loot the other corpses, I began to remember how much joy I had playing Gun Gale Online and how I got into it.

After my failure to join the US armed forces, I had lived with my family, working at a nearby gas station, until sadly my mother and grandmother died in a car accident*. In the aftermath, I had paid what remaining debt my family had, which left me with enough to get or do something to take my mind off the loss. I decided to sell the house, as it had too many memories, and move to Japan, where I managed to find someone willingly to teach an American the language and after a year was speaking mostly fluently. In addition, I had got a job at a nearby gas station (I wonder if that I my lot in life, as this would be the third gas station job I held), stocking shelves and helping maintain the cleanliness of it. After a while, I got an AmuSphere, and I decided to try out Gun Gale Online.

I had been playing for a few months, enjoying the game and loving the freedom from life it gave me when they had a special event that changed how I was playing; the Killzone event. It was a special event inspired by Guerilla Game's Killzone franchise, with players able to obtain weapons and gear from the Killzone universe. It was a month-long event, and while I didn't get what I had initially set out for, it had led to a road I hadn't considered; a Player-killing Sniper.

I had acquired the Helghast Scout set, complete with the cloaking device, a Sta-18 pistol, and finally the master piece I was working on upgrading, the VC-32 Sniper rifle. It was one of the more powerful rifles, outside of anti-material rifles, highly accurate, and it was an absolute gem to use. I thank my step-father for teaching me how to shoot when I was younger, as I was able to use the VC-32 without having to use that stupid Gun-Line aim assist, which meant I could snipe a target beyond the traditional 600 meters without exposing my position. When combined with my cloaking device, I can take shots from unorthodox positions and take advantage of the confusion.

I shook my head, deciding to focus more on the task at hand as I began to loot the final corpse. I was glad that I only had one more body to loot, as I didn't like the vulnerability that looting made your character. Because you had to use a menu, you were essentially locked in place for a moment, which was fine when you were in a safe place or had friends, but out in the open, it was such an easy target for anyone to take. However, as I finished looting the corpse, I thought of the rather dark nickname I earned.

The Vulture, as I was called. A scavenger of GGO, the forums ranted how I was a plague to groups that tried to farm key areas, due to how long I could wait and persist in my hunts. With my unusual character build that focuses on dexterity and sensibility and armed with a sniper rifle and explosive traps, I had taken groups out that had outnumbered me ten to one, all without a scratch. The only reason was that I in turn looted their corpses, hence me nickname. I think there is even a bounty on my head, that was how much I pissed people off.

I smirked at how much of a joy I got out of making other's miserable; taking the gear they worked so hard for and then selling them to someone else for much higher prices after I tweaked them, it was sublime. Standing up from the fifth corpse, I started to make my way back to the safe zone, to my room. I glanced at all I took;

 **-2x G3 Battle Rifles**

 **-1x M16A4 Assault Rifle**

 **-1x MP-5K SMG**

 **-1x M40A3 Sniper Rifle**

 **-1x FN FAL Battle Rifle**

 **-5x Glock 17 Pistols**

 **-4x Grenades**

 **-400x .308mm rounds**

 **-150x 5.56mm rounds**

 **-225x 9mm rounds**

I chuckled; what a profitable looting run. I could convert the G3 rifles into PSG-1s or MSG-90 sniper rifles, the M16A4 into any number of high-grade custom AR-based rifles, the M40A3 into a highly tuned rifle, the FN FAL into a L1A1 marksman rifle, and I could sell the ammunition. I was pondering what to do with the Glock 17, as pistols are not well received in GGO; too slow a rate of fire, lack of punch at range, and the weight that carrying one brought meant it could deny low-strength character builds from using a weapon the player rather use. I could turn them into a Glock 18, making them machine pistols, but between the cost of converting them and then the time to sell them, well, it just wouldn't fetch much. I'd probably be better off selling them to some random NPC vendor.

I glanced at the in-game clock in the menu and sighed. It was nearly 9 o-clock, which meant I had to get to bed and get some sleep. I had work in the morning, which I didn't look forward to, not one bit.

* * *

"Gah, what the fuck did I do in a past life to deserve this?" I muttered to myself. Today had been truck day, which meant we had stuff coming in that had to be checked in, put away, and various minor things. I had to help the kitchens out, as it was a single person working at the time I got in, check their stuff in.

Throughout that process, we had a person quit, we nearly bungled up the invoices, barely got the frozen goods into the cooler before they melted or got too warm, and then I had, going back to the coolers I worked in, had to move another 68 cases of that god awful brand of water, barely managed to stock the shelves full of sodas, energy drinks, milks, and got the beer section done. Oh, and I also had to deal with the outside garbage's, which were nearly over flowing.

I was nearing my apartment, contemplating how well my store in-game was doing. Hopefully not as badly as the gas station had been today. I got the doors and opened it, about to close it when I heard a voice call out.

"Wait!" I paused and held the door open and saw a slightly out of breath woman a few years younger then me. I frowned; I felt like I should know her, yet from where I hadn't a clue. Wasn't a collegue of mine; I knew all of my co-worker's faces if not their names. I kept failing to come up with a reason I would know her, yet I felt like I should know her.

She had long black hair, blueish eyes, was wearing a loose aquamarine shirt and khaki slacks, and was pretty tall for a Japanese woman. But still, I was taller than her, by about eight inches or so. That and massively heavier; despite the nearly two years of cutting back on what I ate to conserve money and the lack of personnel guilty pleasures in Japan, I still weighed around 325 pounds. Better than 420 pounds, but then again not really.

"Thank you so much!" the woman said, dragging my attention out of my head and back into reality. "It looked like it was about to rain, and I didn't want to get caught out." I shrugged.

"Eh, probably for the best, those clouds are looking pretty dark," I replied, before seeing a familiar package. "Got yourself an AmuSphere?" The woman rubbed the back of her head.

"I-ah-yeah I did," she said a little shyly. "I got interested after visiting my parents and seeing it mentioned on the news, and my friend recommended ALO to me." I nodded; Alfheim Online was a popular fantasy VRMMORPG, so it made sense for her friend to introduce her to ALO.

"I heard of it, saw some gameplay of it, but I could never bring myself to play it," I said. "If it was a bit like Dark Souls, I might be more interested in it, but yeah."

"Oh, you play VR games?"

"Only a couple, mostly Gun Gale Online, but I also play Death in the Heavens and Millennium Racers."

"I see. So, um what do you do?" the woman asked, changing subjects. I answer her question.

"I work at the local gas station, stocking the cooler and beer section mostly. How about yourself?"

"Oh I go to university, hoping to get my major in Music," the woman said. She hesistated before continuing. "I'm Kohiruimaki Karen, pleased to meet you." She extended her hand which I shook.

"I'm Vi- wait, this is Japan, not America. I'm Moran Vincent, pleasure to meet you." I was about to say more when the woman paused.

"Ah, this is my apartment, I hope we can talk again sometime?" I nodded.

"Sure, not a problem, do you want to exchange information?" She nodded, and I, ever so grateful Japan had the custom of people exchanging business cards to fall back on, handed her my card. It had my number and name on it, so it wasn't like anything back could happen with that information, or I assume so. She handed me a similar card with her name and number.

"Thank you, and I'll talk to you later," Karen said (ain't no way in hell I was going to try and pronounce her family name, I'd butcher it six ways til Sunday), entering her apartment and closing the door.

I smiled, having contact with someone that wasn't work related or my brother, before I went to find my apartment, only to pause briefly. I glanced at Karen's door, then my door, then back at hers. I walked over and knocked, my confusion mounting. She opened the door.

"Ye- oh hi Moran-san, how can I help you?"

"How long have you lived in that apartment?"

"Um, six months now, why?" I sighed, before explaining to Karen.

"I've lived in the apartment next to you for nearly two years, how the hell did I not once ever meet you?"

* * *

 **Author's Note: And this is where I end this chapter. Well, where to start?**

 **I started writing this literally yesterday, as I had a gotten halfway through SAO Alternative: GGO and finished it this morning. Seriously a good show, and in most ways better then SAO (no kirito, no unexplained hack moves, etc), an awesome cast, and that ending, such a bad-ass then flat-footed ending! Seriously, I wonder how many battle royale are won that way; must be infuriating to watch a good game end in such a bullshit way.**

 **So, I decided to write this fan-fiction, where I was basically just another player that gets involved with the SJ and then develop my character from there. I have a bit of the plot planned out, and it will follow closely to the anime, with some deviancy as I interject some extra flavor to the major events. So somethings will remain the same (like LLENN meeting Pito), while others won't (like the result of the 2** **nd** **SJ, fuck border camping assholes that do nothing but steal the win at the last second).**

 **I want to say that this is not a cross-over fiction, due to the involvement of elements from Killzone. I included that disclaimer as I don't want to get the story pulled down, and I do want to involve elements from Killzone into the story. Things like weapons, character designs, and a few other things I want to include, but this story won't include characters or story elements from Killzone, as it wouldn't make much sense.**

 **This story is also a self-insert story, so I will include real elements from my life to give myself more personality in the story. When I do, I will leave a *, with an annotation at the end in the A/N to explain the source of it. They won't be very often, maybe one or two a chapter, but when you see it, it has to do with my life.**

 **Now onto the one annotation, that I marked with a *. I thankfully still have my mother and grandmother alive, but this is an actual concern of mine, mainly because a car accident can occur through no fault of one's own action. I live in middle of bum fuck nowhere Nevada, and I know we go through beer in town like crazy and I also know there are druggies in town. So I'm a little bit concern for my family's safety, and hope that this fear of mine never comes to pass.**

 **Also, that scene about work, yeah, that was my day today. I hated work today.**

 **Anyway, please read, review, follow, and favorite, and I'll catch you guys next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Planning Ahead

* * *

It had been over a week since I meet my neighbor Karen, and besides some small talk in the hallway, not much changed. It was nice to talk to someone outside of work and my brother, but I never felt…comfortable to push further. Blame my years of seclusion, but I had some weird ideas about how others would perceive me if I did something to branch out. Most of it was plain crazy to contemplate, but some of it made sense, the main issue was knowing if I had allowed enough time to pass or if I knew the person well enough, and that I never felt like I had a grip on.

But the real world could wait, as I had finally, after god only knows how many hours, finally was on the precipice of seeing the fruits of my hard labor in Gun Gale Online. You see, while I hadn't intended to be a sniper with a secondary focus on traps and the economy game, my unique build allowed me to experiment with some lesser known skills.

To explain, Gun Gale Online had 6 main stats; Agility, Dexterity, Strength, Luck, Sensibility, and Vitality. Now, agility affected the bullet circle's appearance and stabilization time, along with boosting a player's movement speed and evasive ability. Dexterity increases one's accuracy and was the main stat for laying traps. Strength was an easy one; it affects your carry capacity and your ease of using certain weapons. Vitality was mainly used to determine your HPs and your resistance to damage. The last two were a bit trickier to explain.

Luck affected one's ability to find higher-rarity items, but it also effected things like your chance to land a 'critical hit' and receive one. Basically, if you were shot in the head, depending on placement and your luck stat, you could survive, albeit on very low health. Luck also affected the chances of your weapon jamming in case you neglect to take care of it; higher luck meant you were less likely to have a jam.

Sensibility was almost everyone's dump stat, and it's not hard to see why. The game doesn't explain the stat clearly, but its main function was to make it easier to observe your surroundings and detect traps. For instance, a player with only a couple points in sensibility can hear gunfire in the city, but a player with a lot of points invested would be able to tell not only how many people were shooting but also make out the distinct reports of certain weapons that you would only make out if you were within 50 meters. It also allows you to more easily detect players hiding by not so much highlighting them but by making their unnatural features more…pronounced for a lack of a better term.

Now, bringing up my stats, you can see how I invested my stat points;

- **Agility: 10**

 **-Dexterity: 30**

 **-Luck: 15**

 **-Sensibility: 30**

 **-Strength: 20**

 **-Vitality: 15**

To most GGO players, this build is a horrible idea. For most, they have a minimum of 25 vitality and 25 strength, with most aiming for a 40/40 Str/Vit build. The idea of someone doing a 30/30 Dex/Sen build was utter lunacy. But that isn't the case, as my skills and equipment counter my flaws and supplement my strengths.

For instance, my cloaking device from my Helghast Scout Sniper made it next to impossible for anyone to spot me unless they notice the mirage like effect it gave in certain lighting conditions, which meant I didn't need high vitality. The VC-32 sniper rifle doesn't need a lot of strength to carry, so I could make due with only 20 strength. The C4 explosives I carry with my 30 Dex allows me to craft some high-level traps, such a proximity mines, trip-wire explosive, or simple remote detonation.

But the main thing was GGO's skill tree. While most players don't talk about it, GGO has a pretty intensive skill tree, ranging from improving one sharpshooting and weapon draw speed, to things like weapon creation and bartering. Some skills are unlocked upon maxing out another skill, such as **Weapon Modification** is unlocked once you master **Weapon Construction**. You gain skill points with every level you earn, and after level 100, you get 2 skill points per level. Thus, this leads to my skill tree, which is rather straightforward;

 **-Rifle Mastery: 20/20**

 **-Sniping Techniques: 5/5**

 **-Pistol Mastery: 20/20**

 **-Quick Draw techniques: 5/5**

 **-Trap Construction: 10/10**

 **-Trap Modification: 5/5**

 **-Weapon Construction: 20/20**

 **-Weapon Modification: 5/5**

 **-Ammo Construction: 5/5**

 **-Salvaging: 15/20**

 **-Concealment Techniques: 10/10**

 **-Camouflage Construction: 5/5**

 **-Bartering: 15/20**

As you can see, most of it is focused on my primary weapons (the VC-32 sniper rifle and Sta-18 pistol), and construction skills. I had invested 15 points in Bartering early on so I could make a profit while trying to max out the various construction and modification skills. But I had finally invested the last point into **Camouflage Construction** , which I know leads to a new skill as after I maxed on Weapon Construction, besides learning the new skill **Weapon Modification** , there was a second skill that I discovered required **Ammo Construction** , **Trap Construction** , and **Camouflage Construction**. Now I just had to scroll to find the new skill. Ah, here it is.

 **Unique Gear Construction**. I frowned, what the hell was this? I tapped on the little info box to learn more about the skill.

 _ **Unique Gear Construction**_ _is a skill that allows construction of event item, limited items, and Tier 5 weapons. In addition, the skill allows for auto-creation of all preceding construction items, allowing quick manufacturing of lower Tier equipment. In order to construct event or limited items, one must_ _ **Salvage**_ _the item to acquire its blueprint._

I continue to frown before I realized the implications of this skill. Normally, Tier 5 gear like the PGM Hecate II anti-material rifle were exceedingly rare, only dropping in raid missions that were about 10 levels higher than the players entering or as an award for winning a tournament. So, a skill that could allow someone to craft Tier 5 gear would be highly sought after. But after thinking about how many skill points you'd have to dump into getting this skill (which is 55 points), it makes sense no one other than someone who has such a passive play style would have it unlocked. Most people invest in hyper-aggressive builds to dominate tournaments or to partake in raids, so investing 55 skill points is pretty mad.

I took a look at the skill one more time before groaning; before I could try it out, I'd have to level up again, and this time instead of the usual 5 or 10 points to max out the skill, it would take 20. That means leveling up 10 times, which for someone with my build means a lot of killing players, looting their corpses, making/modifying their kit, and selling them.

Oh well, time to head back to the safe zone and to my store; I have work to do.

* * *

After spending an hour back in my store modifying some gear, I had decided to log out. Setting aside my AmuSphere, I decided to go make a cup of tea, not quite ready to get some sleep. I had just set the water to boil when I heard a crash through the wall.

"GAH!"

I recognize the, well not quite a scream but close enough, and after making sure I was decent, headed to check on my neighbor. Quickly exiting my apartment and walking to her door, and I knocked on it quickly.

"Ka- ahem, Ms. Kohiruimaki, are you alright?" I inquired, making sure to address Karen formally. Do you realize how hard it is for an American who is used to addressing most people, including their employers, by their given name to address people by their family names, especially Japanese family names. Seriously, while I understand the custom, it's one that I wouldn't mind taking a boot to the ass.

I could hear the slight shuffling of feet approaching the door, before Karen appeared at the door, in a set of pink pajamas. I was a bit surprised, considering it wasn't that late.

"Ah, Moran-san how are you?" she asked, her face a bit slick with sweat and her breathing a bit erratic.

"I'm fine, but I heard a shout from my place and I was a bit concerned," I said. "I'd thought I would check on you."

"Ah, well thank you for your concern Moran-san, but you needn't be terribly concerned," she said, waving my concern away. "It's just me trying to…ah, how to explain?" She paused for a second. "Hm, best I could explain is that I am trying out my AmuSphere, only to be put off from the games I try."

"Huh, like how?" I asked, recalling she was trying ALO when she first bought the AmuSphere. While not my cup of tea, I couldn't think of anything that would be off putting. Maybe there were spider enemies or something somewhat disturbing that caused her to be off put, but then again while I detest spiders, I can deal with them in games.*

"Well, how about I explain inside; it would take a bit to explain and I rather not discuss this at the door," Karen had said. "Would you like some tea?"

"Ah sure; green if you have it," I said, walking in after she permitted me entry. She guided me to her living room where there was what I learned was called a floor desk, along with a massive TV on the wall. I decided to take a seat at the desk, waiting for Karen to get back with some tea. Looking around the room it was pretty barren, but I couldn't comment too much; besides some shelves made of steel pipes and my models, I had nothing adorning my walls, and very little went into aesthetics at my apartment.

It wasn't too long before Karen returned with a couple cups of tea. I nodded my thanks and took a sip, checking to make sure I didn't scold my tongue. I wasn't going to do what my father did and drink something way too hot.* Finding it not too hot, I took a drink before setting the cup down.

"So, what about the games is off putting you?" I asked. Karen looked at me and sighed.

"Well, if I am too be blunt, all of my character's avatars are too tall," Karen said. I raised an eyebrow.

"Eh, what do you mean?"

"I mean that everytime I start a game, I end upo with an avatar that is too tall, and well, I don't like how I am so tall," Karen said. "When I was growing up, I used to be teased about it and I kind of became isolated and self-conscious. So I wanted to get into VR gaming, but I kept getting tall characters, and that is not mentioning those titles where you can be something not human…"

"Yeah, those titles are weird I'll admit," I said, knowing what kind of games she was referring too, "But you have a problem with being tall, that's rather odd. If anything, I thought women want to be taller than they are."

She looked at me with a slightly annoyed look in her eyes.

"Oh, and where do you figure that out?"

"Almost all of my coworkers who are female complain about being short, and almost always I'm the tall schmuck they get when they need something grabbed," I said, not insulted by her annoyance. "Besides, I've been tall most of my life, and I never had any issue other than when I whack my head on something. But who am I to say about your views; I'm not in your shoes and don't know what's been like for you."

"Really, you weren't teased about being tall?" Karen asked, somewhat disbelievingly. I nodded.

"Yeah, never been teased about my height. Unless you consider getting pestered about if you play basketball due to my height as that.* If anything, it often serves as an icebreaker between me and people, with them wondering how tall I am. Then again, it could be that people in the US and Europe in general like tall men, or so they say."

"I see," Karen said. "So, do you think my height complex is stupid?" I shook my head.

"Not really; I mean, you have a reason to be upset about it, and I'm not going to trivialize it. I don't have the same issue, but really, this is something that varies from person to person. So again, I don't see your issues as stupid; odd sure, but not stupid."

"Oh, okay." Karen paused as she took in my comment before changing subject. "So, do you know of anyway to change a avatar to be more what I would want?" This time I sighed, although not at her.

"Unfortunately, no," I started. "For reasons that are extremely petty, if you want a custom avatar in a game, you need to pay quite a fee to be able to create the avatar. The reason being one, the company can make some mint of people trying to design the characters the want, and the second is that they are trying to avoid overpopulating their worlds with the same characters."

"What, how's that possible?" Karen asked.

"Well, despite the wide range of options open to players that are willing to pay for a custom avatar, it's not rare for many people to create almost identical characters," I said. "I mean, groups of people, after a while, will begin to form a shared collective on what is good. You are majoring in Music, right?"

"Yes, but what does music have to do with anything?"

"Well, due to some calculations by someone I can't recall, there are around seventy-nine billion different songs that could be possibly made," I began. "Yet surely you noticed how some songs, even from widely different genres of music, can sound alike."

"I had wondered that, but I just thought that people were being lazy or something," Karen said. I shrugged.

"That's one possibility, but a far more likely one is that we as a society are influenced by what came before and form what we like from those influences. We like it when things have a natural flow to them, and most songs are written as such that it is not jarring so to say. So we really work in a relatively narrow window of music because that is what we like."

"But back to your issue, with gaming avatars, you could make a plethora of characters, practically unlimited in number, but due to human nature, most people will gravitate to certain character models. For instance, a tall, white woman with red hair is a common video game female protagonist, like female Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect trilogy. I could list several, but the jist is that people would make the same character overall, and that would be uncanny in a VRMMORPG, where it's supposed to be a new world, and yet everyone looks almost the same?"

"I see," Karen said, a bit sad. "So is there any hope I don't get a tall avatar." I rubbed my chin in thought.

"I find it odd that you consistently keep getting tall characters, as you should be getting the average height, or about 158cm for a woman in Japan. So my guess is keep trying to find a game where your avatar is the height you want, not much I can suggest."

"Uwah, that sucks," Karen said. I took the final drink of my tea, which had been drunk in the down time.

"Well, I better head back to my own place, I got work tomorrow, I'll see you next time."

"Alright Moran-san, have a good night." I nodded as I left Karen's apartment, glad that was neighbor was alright, but now was growing depressed at the thought of work tomorrow; it was the start of a long weekend. While not late, I had to go in at 4 in the morning, which meant I had to get to sleep soon.

I sighed; I just hope my grinding to unlock the full range of my new skill wouldn't be too dreadful.

\/\/\/

\/\/\/

Between the long weekend where I had to cover for one of my coworkers, a leaking gallon of milk, and a busted can of beer, along with what felt like ages grinding to the necessary level to fully upgrade **Unique Gear Construction** , I was about ready to try out my new skill. Taking out my Sta-18 pistol, I opened my menu and found the **Scrap** button. I hesitated, wondering if it was worth the risk as it was a unique item, before deciding to take the risk; it wasn't my sniper rifle, so it wasn't a huge hit to my character.

I tapped the button, expecting to see some notification displaying what I got when I scrapped it, only to instead get a error message. Frowning, I read the message.

 _In order to scrap Event Items, you must have 20/20 in **Salvaging**. Currently, you have 15/20 in **Salvaging**._

I paused as I stared at the message.

"I fucking hate this so fucking much."

\/\/\/

\/\/\/

 **A/N: Why hello there, this is indeed the end of the second chapter. Feels nice to be getting these chapters out. Anyway, onto some points I want to address and the annotations.**

 **First part of this chapter was me establishing the game mechanics, as I didn't want someone saying that I contradicted myself later on down the line, with the added benefit of introducing a long term plot line. I wanted to keep it based on what we know of GGO, so I went to the wiki and looked at the stats, only to be disappointed at their explanation of stats. I decided to touch it up and make it more relatable to gaming. Like the luck, sensibility, dexterity, and agility stats, they don't make a lot of sense in a VRMMORPG unless they affect game mechanics, which I hope I did.**

 **Now onto the first annotation, I hate being asked 'do you play basketball?'. Seriously, just because I am 6'8" (or 203.2 cm) tall, does not mean I play basketball, or even enjoy it. I quite vehemently hate the god damn sport, for so many reasons I shan't list, but needless to say, I don't, and will never, play basketball.**

 **Next, does anyone have an explanation for why I can kill a spider in say the Elder Scrolls Skyrim or another dungeon crawler without too much issue, yet a small spider in my bedroom makes it so I can't fucking sleep until I know I killed it? What the fuck, I can't explain it away as its simply a media vs reality thing, as movies featuring spiders bug the shit out of me, so can anyone explain?**

 **Finally, funny story involving my dad, he had bought a cup of coffee at a gas station. He, perhaps because he was in a hurry, perhaps because it was before the McDonalds Scandal (which was justified, don't let anyone tell you the woman was trying to rob McDonald's blind, she was trying to pay for her medical expenses from the second or first degree burns she suffered), ended up scalding the shit out of his mouth. Apparently, he was able to rub his mouth and pull out peeled burnt skin from his mouth. Sounds pretty fucking painful, but when he told us the story he was laughing, so maybe it wasn't as bad as I would think it was.**

 **As always guys, please read, review, follow, and favorite, and I'll catch you guys next time.**


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